Web Business Bootcamp by Richard Seltzer

Web Business Bootcamp

Hands-on Internet lessons for managers, entrepreneurs, and professionals looking for online business success

by Richard Seltzer, seltzer@samizdat.com, http://www.samizdat.com
online store http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat

Originally published by Wiley. The rights have reverted to the author.

Please post your comments at our blog, http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?cat=10

Epigraph -- A Glimpse of the Future
Preface
Acknowledgements
Author
Chapter 1. Welcome to the land of the free
Chapter 2. The value of anonymity: privacy and masquerade
Chapter 3. Make your own Web pages on your PC
Chapter 4. Assemble your pages to form a Web site
Chapter 5. Let people know that you're there
Chapter 6. How to improve your Web site
Chapter 7. Building your audience with online interaction
Chapter 8. Building relationships with customers: what you can learn from selling at auctions
Chapter 9. What to do with an audience and what else to do with your content
Chapter 10. Going global
Chapter 11. Experimenting with futures
Chapter 12. The future of business on the Internet

A Glimpse of the Future

From Georgia to Palo Alto,
from Oslo to Singapore,
from the Vatican Library to dinosaurs in Hawaii,
from Talk Radio to missing children,
from Bio-Informatics to the World Bank,
from Wired Magazine to Mother Jones,
from current weather maps to the latest supreme court decisions,
a vast array of information is being made available in attractive,
easy to use form, and for free over the Internet.
A global electronic mall is under construction.
People congregate here, interact here, find the information they want here.
And here, too, they are beginning to conduct business.
Here the smallest of companies can search and shop on a global scale
for the best resources and products at the best prices.
Here those same small companies can market their own abilities and
products in a global marketplace.
This means a new array of risks and opportunities.
In the future, you will be forced to compete with distant companies you never encountered before,
and you will be able to expand to new markets at low cost.
Here new business models will evolve quickly, with new kinds of partnership and collaboration,
new ways of working together and serving customers
and making money.
-- Richard Seltzer, from the script for videotape "A Glimpse of the Future," January 1994

Preface --

Why you need hands-on experience and how to use this book

If you are a manager, entrepreneur, or independent professional, you need to learn how to cope in the post-apocalypse Internet business environment, after banner advertising failed as a business model, dot-com stock prices plummeted, and venture capital became scarce. In this environment even the largest companies cannot afford to squander their resources. Customers and revenue and profit matter. Common-sense business logic prevails. And you need to quickly learn how to do as much as you can for the least cost.

You need to step out of the board room and get your hands dirty. You need to experience the Internet business environment first-hand to appreciate the challenges and recognize the opportunities, to see new ways to save money and to make money. You need to understand how Web page design affects traffic and marketing. And you need the insight and confidence that can come from hands-on experience so you can tell technical experts what you want and why.

Also, no matter how good your basic business idea and how great your long-term prospects, you need to be prepared to go into hibernation if venture capital is unavailable or your key customers run out of cash. Could you keep your current Web site or a new scaled-down version going with a skeleton crew or even just yourself? Could you continue to look like a going operation while you wait for the market to turn and investors and customers to come back? Or perhaps until you find a buyer for the entire business? You might be able to use that hibernation time to find your Internet roots and craft a new beginning for your Web-based business.

And if you are between jobs or getting the entrepreneurial itch for the first time, this same "bootcamp" training can help you get off to a good start, with a viable business model, and practices that take full advantage of the power and flexibility of the Internet environment, freeing you from dependence on high-priced design services and consultants.

Also, if you are a technical person rather than a manager, and have business ambitions or new business responsibilities, you may need to supplement what you know already with the broad business perspective you can get from this book.

This book does not attempt to cover the entire field of ecommerce. Rather it focuses on activities that ordinary people can easily do themselves, that are interrelated, that are key to business success, and that entrepreneurs and ecommerce managers typically delegate to experts, without knowing enough to properly set goals, coordinate activities, and monitor progress.

It does not attempt to give a broad overview of all of the alternatives -- there are books already that go into each specialty in great detail. Rather, it gives you step-by-step instructions to get you started with one or two products or services in each area, enough for you to get the experience you need for insight into important aspects of business on the Internet.

The activities described in this book require no technical knowledge, and cost little or nothing (so long as you have a computer and can connect to the Internet).

Each chapter includes one or more "required" assignments -- tasks you need to perform to prepare you for other tasks in later chapters. You'll also see suggestions for "elective activities" to expand your experience and knowledge.

My own Web site (www.samizdat.com) serves as an example of what can be done on a shoestring, without technical sophistication, and also a source for further related reading.

You can also join online discussions of these same issues at a Web site I've put together in conjunction with this book -- www.webworkzone.com/bootcamp. There you can interact with me and with other readers.

NB -- This book is targeted primarily at users of Windows PCs, as opposed to Apple Macintosh, UNIX, or Linux. Much of what is said here applies equally well for Macintosh users, but some commands would be different for them, and in some cases the software company or Internet service described does not yet support Macintosh. Typically, vendors follow the numbers: developing first for Windows PCs, because they are in the overwhelming majority, and for Macintosh only when pressed by demand from potential customers.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Andree Abecassis, my agent, for bringing the opportunity to my attention and doing everything she could to make this book a reality.

Thanks to Matt Holt at Wiley for believing in the idea.

Thanks to the participants in my weekly chat sessions about Business on the Web for their insights and advice regarding the world of online shopping and the Internet business environment in general. In particular, thanks to Bob Zwick, John Hibbs, Sudha and Shirish Jamthe, Kathleen Gilroy, Tracy Marks, Kaye Vivian, Tim Horgan, Ron Rothenberg, Bob Fleischer, Jeff Kane, Carol Snyder, Tom Dadakis, Todd Moyer, Reem Yared, Mike Cosgrave, Steve Woit, Terry Maugeri, Nicki Dzugan, Christian Frosch, Ed Jaros, Linda Stillborne, and Marshall Wick.

Thanks to my former colleagues at Digital Equipment, for all their many insights about the direction of computer technology and Internet business. In particular, thanks to: Berthold Langer, Tom Richardson, Bob Powell, Dan Kalikow, Danny Mayer, Jeff Black, Steve Coughlan, Ashu Bhatnagar, Dudley Howe, Kathy Greenler, Louis Monier, Sam Fuller, John Jacobs, Mark Conway, Dave Sciuto, Phil Grove, Joan Blair, Dave Cedrone, Steve Schultz, Ethel Kaiden, Roseann Giordano, Jay Owen, Tom Pisinski, Don Gaubatz, Harris Sussman, Jack Rahaim, Anne Kreidler, Jim Johnson, Steve Fink, Fred Isbell, Seth Itzkan, Phil Grove, Jonathan George, Sheila Goggin, Mike Odom, Bill Keyworth, David Marques, George Pappas, Donna Curtis, Mark Hayes, Mark Collett, Jean Bonney, Mark Fredrickson, Ann Howe, Phil Faulkner, Stan Hayami, Tom Skinner, Russ Jones, Brian Reid, Joella Paquette, Carolyn Unger, Freddy Mini, Dave Buffo, Wendy Caswell, Sharon Henderson, Jeff Harrow, Kathleen Warner, Skip Garvin, Tom Camp, Jef Gibson, Don Harbert, Kate Nelson, Bob Lehmenkuler, Ray Suarez, Alfred Thompson, Kelly O'Ryan, Janice Colombi, Jeff Schriesheim, Larry Kenah, Alan Nemeth, Russ Doane, Alan Kotok, David Probert, Leszek Kotsch, Chuck Malkiel, Mark Hevesh, Deb Buckley, Win Treese, Len Segal, Mike Jamison, Ken Olsen, Gordon Bell, Larry Portner, David Stone, Win Hindle, Bob Glorioso, Cliff Clarke, Roger Heinen, B.J. Johnson, Tom Blinn, and Dallas Kirk.

Thanks to the many others who have helped me better understand the dynamics of the Internet and how it can and should be used, in particular: Larry Chase, Noreen Webber, Phil Duchastel, Diane Croft, Gordon Joly, Rik Hall, Betsy Campbell, Jeff Rayport, John Sviokla, Wes Kussmaul, Mary Cronin, Jeremy Josephs, Fareed Yasseen, Anwar Diab, Anthony Alvarez, Bill Wendell, Claude Thau, Vaughn Rhodes, Danny Sullivan, Detlev Johnson, Shari Thurow, Ashley Grayson, Alec McDonald, Phil Duchastel, Chris Locke, Dana Blankenthorn, and David Wheeler.

And special thanks to my wife Barbara who provided feedback on everything and numerous suggestions, and who has put up with me for over 28 years.

Author

For 19 years, Richard Seltzer worked for Digital Equipment, then Compaq, focusing on the Internet for the last five years, most recently as "Internet Evangelist." He was one of the handful of people who helped Digital Equipment to recognize and take advantage of new business opportunities on the Internet. For Digital, he wrote The AltaVista Search Revolution, which is published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill, and is now in its second edition. (Library Journal called it "indispensable.")

Now as an independent Internet marketing consultant, he frequently writes and speaks on Internet topics, acting as an advocate for more effective use of the Internet for business and education. Since leaving Compaq in December 1998, he has written a consumer book Shop Online the Lazy Way for Macmillan and a business book Take Charge of Your Web Site for Mighty Words.

In addition, Richard runs his own small publishing business on the Internet (The B&R Samizdat Express). His acclaimed Web site (www.samizdat.com) serves as a test ground for his ideas about how to use text content to bring traffic to Web sites. Thanks to useful and well-indexed content, his site gets over 100,000 pages views per month (over 1500 unique users per day) with no advertising.

He graduated from Yale in 1969, with a major in English, and got an MA from the U. of Mass. at Amherst in 1972, in Comparative Literature (French, Russian, and German). His other books include: The Name of Hero (historical novel, published by Tarcher/Houghton Mifflin, 1982), Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes (translation from the Russian, Red Sea/Africa World Press, 2000), The Lizard of Oz (fantasy for all ages, B&R Samizdat Express, 1974), Now and Then and Other Tales from Ome (children's stories, B&R Samizdat Express, 1976).

I'll be posting the chapters that follow one per day over the next couple weeks.
7. Building your audience with online interaction
8. Building relationships with customers: what you can learn from selling at auctions
9. What to do with an audience and what else to do with your content
10. Going global
11. Experimenting with futures
12. The future of business on the Internet

Please post your comments at our blog, http://www.samizdat.com/blog/?cat=10

This site is Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com

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